The Protestant Reformation resulted in the continuous division of churches over the interpretation of Scripture, each new denomination insisting on its own as authentic. But of course, since they all contradict each other, they can’t all be correct. The divisions continue to this day—thousands of them. If this is reformation, I’d hate to see chaos!

When we understand that all that we are, we are because of Christ, and all that Mary is, she is because of Christ, and her relation to Christ, being in Him, with Him, and through Him, all of a sudden the blinders fall off, and…this is why Marian theology is so important for us as Catholics to know, because in Mary, we see, re-echoed, all of the most important dogmas of the faith, as Vatican II said.

Mary keeps our theology from becoming an abstraction, because in Mary we see (faith) concretized, lived out through her whole life, and she’s gone before us, perfected, hence she’s our hope. Jesus, of course, is the hope of glory, but Mary is our hope in as much as what Jesus promised has been fulfilled in her and we can look at her and see that God fulfills His promises, and in that sense she becomes our hope, and we also see in her our own dignity.